Chief Minister defends plans for government

Chief Minister defends plans for government

Under plans proposed by Senator Gorst to change the way government works, the Chief Minister would be able to ‘reshuffle’ ministers and their responsibilities – even if the States had only recently voted on the ministerial positions.

Speaking at a Scrutiny Panel hearing, Senator Gorst admitted that the proposed law could be used that way in ‘black and white’ but that in practice that situation would not arise.

He said: ‘Any Chief Minister that did that would potentially face a vote of no confidence straight away. The Chief Minister just wouldn’t do that.

‘Perhaps to satisfy that concern there might be an amendment with a time limit which would have to expire before a Chief Minister could carry out this particular function.’

The proposals would also give the Chief Minister greater flexibility to transfer ministerial responsibilities and budgets and create a single entity called Jersey Ministers rather than individual departments.

Senator Gorst’s plans to overhaul the machinery of government would also effectively put more power in the hands of the chief executive of the States, currently Charlie Parker.

The proposals have already been approved in principle and the debate on the final law changes is due to resume on Tuesday 20 March. Deputies Simon Brée and David Johnson and Constable Chris Taylor were sitting on the panel.

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